Striker Ashley Ward today joined Bradford City in a £1.5m transfer some 16 hours after rejecting the club's offer of personal terms.

The deal to bring the Blackburn player to Valley Parade looked dead last night when Ward turned down City's offer.

However, he got back in touch this morning and City raced against time to complete the deal before the noon deadline so he can be included in the squad for tomorrow's first Premier-ship match at Liverpool.

Chairman Geoffrey Richmond said: "Ashley Ward called just before 9am to say he would be delighted to accept the last offer we made to him in our talks last night.

"As soon as he contacted us we hurriedly arranged a medical and prepared a contract and completed all the necessary formalities before the deadline."

Ward, who joined Blackburn from Barnsley two years ago in a £4.5m deal, has agreed a four year contract.

Meanwhile, there will be no early developments regarding another possible signing target, Russian international striker Vladimir Bestchastnykh.

Hutchings and chief scout Andy Smith went to Moscow to watch the 26-year-old player in action for Russia in a friendly against Israel on Wednesday, but Hutchings said: "He only played for 45 minutes and it was a very slow game. You couldn't see a lot which was a disappointing. We are unsure whether to pursue it or not."

Meanwhile, coach Malcolm Shotton has sprung to the defence of City's most recent signing, Italian striker Benito Carbone.

There has been a week of bad publicity in the national press questioning the player's reliability and speculation that he might have an 'escape' clause in his contract if City are relegated, something the club strenuously deny.

But Shotton said: "A lot of things have been blown out of all proportion since Benito joined us. He won't rock the boat. He has settled in well.

"Dan Petrescu speaks highly of him and Dan wouldn't say anything that wasn't true."

Hutchings will choose his Anfield line-up from a squad of 20, but Welsh striker Dean Saunders will not be playing against his former club.

Saunders, who has been nursing a knee injury for the last three weeks, hurt his hamstring in a pre-season friendly at Guiseley on Tuesday.

City will have good support at Liverpool. All their allocation of 3,000 tickets have been sold, but there are still plenty of tickets left for the first two home matches against Chelsea next Tuesday and Leicester a week tomorrow.